1. Olmecs and Mayans

2. Olmecs
Earliest known ceremonial centers of the ancient Americas appeared near modern day Veracruz around 1200 B.C.
Served as the nerve center for the first complex society of the Americas, the Olmecs
“Olmec” was not what the people called themselves
It means “rubber people” and comes from the rubber trees that flourish in the region

3. Characteristics of Olmec Civilization
Intensive agricultural techniques
Area received abundant rainfall so extensive irrigation systems were unnecessary
Still the Olmecs built elaborate drainage systems to divert waters that might otherwise have caused floods
Specialization of labor
Jade craftsmen
Cities
Built around ceremonial centers at San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes
A social hierarchy
Society was probably authoritarian
Common subjects provided labor and tribute to the elite
Intensive agricultural techniques, such as the use of animal power, crop rotation, and irrigation. This enables farmers to produce a surplus of food that will not be needed for their own subsistence.
A significant portion of the population that does not devote most of its time to producing food. They can go into other occupations and trade for the food they need. This is called "specialization of labor." It is possible because of the food surplus described above.
The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements, called cities.
A social hierarchy. This can be a chiefdom, in which the chieftain of one noble family or clan rules the people; or a state society, in which the ruling class is supported by a government or bureaucracy. Political power is concentrated in the cities.
The establishment of complex, formal social institutions such as organized religion and education, as opposed to the less formal traditions of other societies.
Development of complex forms of economic exchange. This includes the expansion of trade and may lead to the creation of money and markets.
The accumulation of more material possessions than in simpler societies.
Development of new technologies by people who are not busy producing food. In many early civilizations, metallurgy was an important advancement.
Advanced development of the arts by those who don't have to farm for a living. This can include writing.

4. Characteristics of Olmec Civilization
Organized religion and education
Ceremonial centers, priests, temples, altars, and human sacrifice
Development of complex forms of economic exchange
Imported jade and obsidian and exported small jade, basalt, and ceramic works of art
Development of new technologies
Excellent astronomers and mathematicians who developed a calendar
Advanced development of the arts. (This can include writing.)
Created colossal human heads sculpted from basalt rock
Intensive agricultural techniques, such as the use of animal power, crop rotation, and irrigation. This enables farmers to produce a surplus of food that will not be needed for their own subsistence.
A significant portion of the population that does not devote most of its time to producing food. They can go into other occupations and trade for the food they need. This is called "specialization of labor." It is possible because of the food surplus described above.
The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements, called cities.
A social hierarchy. This can be a chiefdom, in which the chieftain of one noble family or clan rules the people; or a state society, in which the ruling class is supported by a government or bureaucracy. Political power is concentrated in the cities.
The establishment of complex, formal social institutions such as organized religion and education, as opposed to the less formal traditions of other societies.
Development of complex forms of economic exchange. This includes the expansion of trade and may lead to the creation of money and markets.
The accumulation of more material possessions than in simpler societies.
Development of new technologies by people who are not busy producing food. In many early civilizations, metallurgy was an important advancement.
Advanced development of the arts by those who don't have to farm for a living. This can include writing.

5. Olmec Head at La Venta

6. Decline of the Olmec
Olmecs systematically destroyed their ceremonial centers at both San Lorenzo and La Venta and then deserted the sites
Statues were broken and buried, monuments defaced, and capitals burned
No one knows why, but some speculate reasons involving civil conflicts or doubts about the effectiveness or legitimacy of the ruling classes
By about 400 B.C., Olmec society had fallen on hard times and other societies soon eclipsed it

7. Mayans
Began to develop around 300 A.D. in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador
Known as “The People of the Jaguar”

9. Olmec Influence on the Mayans
Maize
Ceremonial centers with temple pyramids
Calendar based on the Olmec one
Ball games
Rituals involving human sacrifice

10. Characteristics of a Civilization
Intensive agricultural techniques
Specialization of labor
Cities
A social hierarchy
Organized religion and education
Development of complex forms of economic exchange
Development of new technologies
Advanced development of the arts. (This can include writing.)
Intensive agricultural techniques, such as the use of animal power, crop rotation, and irrigation. This enables farmers to produce a surplus of food that will not be needed for their own subsistence.
A significant portion of the population that does not devote most of its time to producing food. They can go into other occupations and trade for the food they need. This is called "specialization of labor." It is possible because of the food surplus described above.
The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements, called cities.
A social hierarchy. This can be a chiefdom, in which the chieftain of one noble family or clan rules the people; or a state society, in which the ruling class is supported by a government or bureaucracy. Political power is concentrated in the cities.
The establishment of complex, formal social institutions such as organized religion and education, as opposed to the less formal traditions of other societies.
Development of complex forms of economic exchange. This includes the expansion of trade and may lead to the creation of money and markets.
The accumulation of more material possessions than in simpler societies.
Development of new technologies by people who are not busy producing food. In many early civilizations, metallurgy was an important advancement.
Advanced development of the arts by those who don't have to farm for a living. This can include writing.

11. Agriculture
Maize
Cacao

12. Agriculture
Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility
Mayans built terraces to retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production
Raised maize, cotton, and cacao
Cacao was a precious commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money
Cacao tree

13. Cities

14. Cities: Tikal
From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large ceremonial centers
All had pyramids, palaces, and temples
Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities
The most important was Tikal
Small city-kingdoms served as the means of Mayan political organization

15. Cities: Tikal
Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4th and 9th Centuries
Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with a population of nearly 40,000
The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000

16. Tikal: Temple of the Jaguar
154 feet high
Served as funerary pyramid for Lord Cacao, Maya ruler of the late 6th and early 7th centuries

17. Social Hierarchy
A Mayan Warrior
A Mayan Priest

18. Social Hierarchy King and ruling family Priests
Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class)
Warriors
Professionals and artisans
Peasants
Slaves

19. Social Hierarchy King and ruling family
Ruled from the city-kingdoms such as Tikal
Ruled by semi-divine right and believed their connection with the gods was maintained by ritual human sacrifice
Often had names associated with the jaguar
Priests
Maintained an elaborate calendar and transmitted knowledge of writing, astronomy, and mathematics
A Mayan King

20. Social Hierarchy
Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class)
Owned most of the land and cooperated with the kings and priests by organizing military forces and participating in religious rituals
Warriors
Mayan kingdoms fought constantly with each other and warriors won tremendous prestige by capturing high-ranking enemies
Captives were usually made slaves, humiliated, tortured, and ritually sacrificed

21. Social Hierarchy Professionals and artisans Peasants Slaves
Architects and sculptors supervised construction of the large monuments and public buildings
Peasants
Fed the entire society
Slaves
Provided physical labor for the construction of cities and monuments
Often had been captured in battle

22. Specialization

23. Specialization Astronomers Mathematicians Warriors
Architects and sculptors
Potters
Tool manufacturers
Textile makers

24. Religion and Education
Human Sacrifice and Bloodletting Ritual

25. Religion: Importance of Agriculture
Mayan religion reflected the fundamental role of agriculture in their society
Popol Vuh, was the Mayan creation myth that taught that the gods had created human beings out of maize and water
Gods kept the world in order and maintained the agricultural cycle in exchange for honors and sacrifices

26. Religion: Bloodletting Rituals
Mayans believed the shedding of human blood would prompt the gods to send rain to water the maize
Bloodletting involved both war captives and Mayan royals
Mayan queen holds a bowl filled with strips of paper used to collect blood.

27. Religion: Bloodletting
A popular bloodletting ritual was for a Mayan to pierce his own tongue and thread a thin rope through the hole, thus letting the blood run down the rope

28. Religion: The Ball Game
Mayans inherited a ball game from the Olmecs that was an important part of Mayan political and religious festivals
High-ranking captives were forced to play the game for their very lives
The losers became sacrificial victims and faced torture and execution immediately following the match
Object of the game was to propel an 8 inch ball of solid baked rubber through a ring or onto a marker without using your hands

29. Mayan Ball Court

30. Mayan symbol for movement
Economic Exchange
Mayan symbol for movement

31. Economic Exchange
Traveling merchants served not just as traders but also as ambassadors to neighboring lands and allied people
Traded mainly in exotic and luxury goods such as rare animal skins, cacao beans, and finely crafted works of art which rulers coveted as signs of special status
Cacao used as money

32. Observatory at El Caracol
New Technologies
Mayan Calendar
Observatory at El Caracol

33. Mayan numerical system
New Technologies
Excelled in astronomy and mathematics
Could plot planetary cycles and predict eclipses of the sun and moon
Invented the concept of zero and used a symbol to represent zero mathematically, which facilitated the manipulation of large numbers
By combining astronomy and mathematics, calculated the length of the solar year at days– about 17 seconds shorter than the figure reached by modern astronomers
Mayan numerical system

34. New Technologies: Calendar
Mayan priests developed the most elaborate calendar of the ancient Americas
Interwove two kinds of year
A solar year of 365 days governed the agricultural cycle
A ritual year of 260 days governed daily affairs by organizing time into twenty “months” of thirteen days each
Believed each day derived certain characteristics from its position on both the solar and ritual calendars and carefully studied the combinations
Lucky and unlucky days

35. Art and Writing
Mayan writing

36. Writing
Expanded on Olmec tradition to create the most flexible and sophisticated of all early American systems of writing
Contained both ideographic elements and symbols for syllables
Used to write works of history, poetry, and myth and keep genealogical, administrative, and astronomical records

37. Mayan Decline
By about 800, most Mayan populations had begun to desert their cities
Full scale decline followed everywhere but in the northern Yucatan
Possible causes include foreign invasion, internal dissension and civil war, failure of the water control system leading to agricultural disaster, ecological problems caused by destruction of the forests, epidemic diseases, and natural disasters